Happy thoughts
by HouseoftheBadger
Summary: A few words: 7th years Marauders, and their honorary-member. D.A.D.A. Their lesson is to try to conjure their Patronus. Nothing more to say about it. Rated K plus for slight swearing.
**Disclaimer: I own nothing but the story and any OC:s that might be in here. But Harry Potter belongs to J.K Rowling, that amazing human.**

7th year Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs walked into the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom and realized that the classroom looked slightly different than usual. It took a few moments before they realized that it was because all the furniture had been moved to stand next to the wall, so the entire middle of the classroom was empty. In the front their teacher from Japan stood: Professor Toshi Akiyama. He smiled when they poured into the classroom, looking around in slight confusion and trying to decide where to stand.

The three boys, or young men, and girl, or young woman, that arrived last looked around with big eyes but then they made their way to the front. Most students parted for the four of them, some of the most popular students in the school and also known trouble-makers (the woman had been known as it after she began to befriend – and later on date one of them – the men, who were known as the Marauders. One of the black haired men – the one with the messy hair and glasses, Head Boy and Quidditch Captain – had his arm draped around the waist of the woman and a small look of triumph and a certain joyous dizziness when he looked at her, like he didn't really understand how he was allowed to touch her like this – or at all. Which perhaps wasn't so strange, seeing that he had been chasing after her since third year but she had hated him until 7th year. These two were known as James Potter, or Prongs by his close friends, and Lily Evans. Or Flower, Lilykins, Lilina or another ridiculous nickname by James and his closest friend Sirius.

The other two were known as Sirius Black – or Padfoot and Remus Lupin – Moony. The group had a fourth member: Peter Pettigrew, Wormtail, but he hadn't made it to D.A.D.A. N.E.W.T. level. He took Ghoul Studies instead. They all looked both relieved and slightly proud when they looked at their best friend and his girlfriend – and their new best friend. First Sirius hadn't been too happy over the fact that James got a steady girlfriend, but as soon as he dared to believe that he would not be neither forgotten nor ignored because of it, he had been just as happy (but mostly relieved because it meant James would stop talking all the time about how wonderful Evans was) for his friend.  
"What do you think we're going to do?" Lily asked as she eyed the room and their professor curiously. Remus shrugged, but he looked just as curious. D.A.D.A. was his favourite subject after all.

"No idea, but probably we'll get to know soon. Professor Akiyama looks like he's going to explode from excitement."  
It was true. The tanned man looked very excited, even though he succeeded pretty well with making himself look composed. The four students lined up in the front row and soon Professor Akiyama began to speak.  
"Hello class." He said. "Today we're going to do something extremely hard, so don't be disappointed if you can't do it because there are many who can't, we shall conjure a Patronus Charm."

Eager and nervous chatter was immediately spread through the room and the students looked at each other with excited smiles. The three Marauders and their honorary Marauder turned to each other. Sirius smirked when he saw that Remus looked nervous.  
"Come on Moony. If anyone could do it it would be you" he laughed "seeing how every Defence teacher keeps talking about how you're a prodigy at the subject."  
Remus smiled gratefully even though it didn't help entirely. Lily almost jumped up and down in excitement.  
"It would be banging to be able to do a Patronus! And don't you want to know which form your corporeal Patronus would have?"  
The three men exchanged gazes, feeling a little uncomfortable. Especially James and Remus. Both James and Sirius obviously knew already, seeing that a Patronus always had the same form as your Animagi-form. They hadn't told Lily about it yet, seeing that it could change a lot if she took it wrong – but they would obviously have to tell her about Remus' lycanthropy on the other hand. Neither James nor Sirius thought she would actually react badly at knowing, and Remus didn't think she would mind his friends being animaguses, but he was really nervous about telling her about him being a werewolf. He still had a hard time believing that his friends hadn't left him for it.

* * *

Akiyama cleared his throat and the students turned their attention to him again. He began to explain how they should do it – think happy thoughts; your happiest memory, concentrate and so on. The whole class listened carefully, even James and Sirius who normally could do anything without even trying. But they, especially James, had cleaned up this last year at Hogwarts and worked a little harder for his grades – which resulted in almost straight O's. Then he took out his wand, said the incantation and a silvery animal flew out in the room. A Japanese Macaque ran around and a lot of "Ohhhh"s came from the students before the animal returned the charm caster.

After around ten minutes they were told to remember their happiest memory. Remus scrolled through his memories after his happiest. Almost all of them were with his friends. The evening they had realized he was a werewolf and not abandoned him, all the times they had assured him that he was not a monster, how they took notes for him when he was away from class even though they all hated taking notes, Peter making his reputation even worse (not that anyone but the Slytherins and a few Ravenclaws with bonds to Slytherins would dare to play on that bad reputation – he was still a Marauder) by pretending to stumble into people and overbalance them so they wouldn't get in his way when he was tried or hurt because of the full moon, James who just listened and gave him chocolate when he needed someone to talk to, Sirius who had more than once cursed or even beaten someone up the muggle way because they made fun of his scars (he didn't approve, of course, but he was still grateful). How they were always there for him and even became Animagi for him, this year's Christmas. The full moon had been on Christmas Day and it was their last Christmas at Hogwarts, and still they had spent the whole day caring for him and giving him the best Christmas possible instead of celebrating with their families or something like that, even though the Moon had been unusually hard so he had been in a worse condition than usual. He wasn't able to choose a single memory so he let his entire friendship with his first and best friends ever fill his head and he felt warm.

"Have you found your happy memory?" Akiyama asked. "Good. Now, remember the hand movement, and the incantation is _Expecto Patronum_. Go ahead and try."

Soon the room was filled with students muttering or almost shouting the incantation out in the room, but yet no one had succeeded with neither a normal nor corporeal Patronus.

* * *

Remus closed his eyes for a moment, recalling all those happy moments, before smiling and opening his eyes. He lifted his Cypress wand and said clearly: "Expecto Patronum."  
No Patronus, but he thought he had seen a small spark. He tried again, with the same result. After fifteen minutes no one had yet succeeded and some students seemed to give up. All the Marauders – including Lily – were still trying though. Remus did it once again and thought of all his happy memories with his friends, including Lily, and said it slowly and clearly: " _Expecto Patronum_."

First, nothing, but then he gasped and everyone turned to him with wide eyes. From the tip of his wand a silvery animal burst out and began to run around the room. "20 points to Gryffindor!" Akiyama shouted. First he couldn't see what animal it was – it looked like some kind of dog – but then, in the same moment as his friends came up to congratulate him he realized what it was and his eyes widened, breath catching in his throat. He just dropped his wand and turned around to kick the wall. First James and Sirius looked confused but then they too realized what animal it was and burst out laughing.  
"Bloody _hell_. It's a fucking _wolf_." Remus muttered and banged his head into the wall. Lily and everyone in the room stared at him in extreme confusion even though something seemed to dawn the red head after a few moments, but Remus didn't have energy to think of what it could be.

The two black haired men were still laughing so they barely could breathe, but Sirius managed to pet Remus' head.  
"Come on, Moony." He said between his fits of laughter. "It isn't that bad."  
"Oh, it sure is." Remus replied sourly. "It's a _wolf_ , Padfoot. A _blooming_ wolf."  
The other students were really confused now, and a Gryffindor girl named Johanna walked up to them with her eyebrows furrowed.  
"What's wrong with having a wolf as Patronus?" she asked and Remus glared slightly at her before collecting himself, thinking that she couldn't be blamed as she luckily didn't know.  
"Oh, nothing. Absolutely nothing at all." He replied before hitting the wall again. Johanna opened her mouth again but Lily suddenly grabbed her and shook her head. None of the Marauders noticed this though and were happy when she left.

* * *

Akiyama coughed and tried to get the attention of the class again, telling them to continue trying. After a few moments James and Sirius patted Remus back and went back to their Patronus-casting. Or at least James did, Sirius didn't seem to care so very much. After a few moments another "Ohhhh" was heard and Remus saw that a Badger, he thought her name was Christy Altman, had succeeded to cast a polar bear Patronus and earned Hufflepuff 15 points for being second. After another few minutes he heard a wand drop to the ground when a light was seen. When he looked he saw James staring with his mouth open at the Patronus animal that was walking around the room, and the spell-caster. Remus smiled and saw Sirius do the same when they realized that it was Lily who had cast the charm, and that Lily's Patronus was, in fact, a doe. The female counterpart of James' stag. He supposed that James actually had read their books on the subject and remembered that when Patronuses (or animaguses) match, the casters are usually soulmates.

Sirius smirked and took up James' wand and gave it back to the black haired man and nudged his side with his elbow.  
"Come on mate. Do it."  
James nodded and seemed to concentrate really hard before he said the incantation: " _Expecto Patronum_ " and waved his wand. And suddenly a big silvery stag burst out from the tip and ran up to Lily's doe.

They began to walk around the room, side by side, and Lily stared at it and then turned to James. They just stared at each other before Sirius nudged on James and Marlene McKinnon – one of Lily's friends – nudged on her and in a second they stood there in the middle of the classroom kissing each other. Catcalls came from around the room, especially from Sirius and Remus, but they didn't even seem to care when Akiyama began to cough. Eventually he sighed and turned around, telling the other students to keep working.

Sirius shrugged and seemed to think that now everybody had done it, he should too, so he waved his wand and began to say the incantation. After a couple of tries a silvery-blue version of Padfoot began to run around in the room.

* * *

After the lesson they met Peter outside the Charms classroom to go to the Quidditch-pitch. There was a small blizzard outside but James and Sirius had an important match soon and they should definitely train. Since they hadn't actual practice until tomorrow, and the entire team wasn't free, Remus and Peter had to play with them. Remus was Keeper and Peter was Chaser with James during these sessions. Lily hated flying, so she acted judge. James had actually got her on a broomstick to play with them some months ago in exchange for that he would play football and basketball with her – which she excelled at, both of them, meanwhile James being the pureblood, he only had played football once before when they spent two weeks at Remus' two years before, and didn't even know what basketball was. She had owned them all, Remus too even though he could play them both since he was half muggle – and it had ended quite catastrophic with Remus having to catch her on her quick way down before she hit the ground.

Peter was amazed when they told him that they all had cast their Patronuses – even though, technically speaking, Wormy was amazed over practically anything James or Sirius did – and demanded a demonstration. Even he, even though he didn't study D.A.D.A. knew about Patronuses and soulmates, so when he saw the two deer he almost fell over in surprise, which amused Sirius to no end and almost made James feel a bit offended even though he was too happy to actually be offended right now.

* * *

 **Two years later**  
"Do you, James Fleamont, take this Lily Anne Theresa to be your wife, to love and honour for the rest of your life?" the priest asked. Lily and James had decided to have a wedding that was a mix between magical and muggle, so they had used their favourite traditions from both.  
Lily smiled widely and squeezed James' hand a little harder.  
"I solemnly swear." He answered, sounding so incredibly happy. James' smile widened even a little more, even though no one would've thought that possible.

"Do you, Lily Anne Theresa, take this James Fleamont to be your husband, to love and honour for the rest of your life?"  
A slightly nervous look appeared in James' hazel eyes, incredibly small but still there, and Lily almost laughed when she realized that James still doubted that she really had chosen him, that she really wanted to be with him for the rest of her life. For a second she thought about looking like she hesitated but then she realized that would be too cruel to the poor man.  
"I solemnly swear." She answered instead, just like James had done before her, and the nervousness disappeared in James' eyes and he looked positively dizzy of celestial happiness.

The priest waved the ring bearer, James' cousin's son William, forward and he gave them the rings. James first put Lily's ring on her finger: it was a golden ring with one emerald and one brown topaz on it, representing them and their eyes. It was placed right upon Lily's engagement ring, which too was golden but with a big ruby on it. Then Lily put James' ring on his finger. Golden too, with the same stones but much smaller.  
"I hereby pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss the bride." The priest then said when they finished and James immediately bowed forward to kiss his wife. The guests broke out in applause.

When they parted they both raised their wands and said an incantation, and suddenly two deer – one stag and one doe – burst out in the room, glowing silvery, and began to walk around the room as they bowed forward and kissed each other again.  
Over everything else they could hear when they finally became conscious about their surroundings again was the very familiar voice of James' best man whistling and shouting meanwhile his two groomsmen laughed quietly and smacking said best man over the head in the background:

"Now I suppose I cannot call you Evans anymore, Flower!"

Lily smiled widely and a little victoriously and she kissed James on the cheek meanwhile James grinned a ridiculous sort of grin.  
"Nope. It's Potter now."

* * *

 **Review!**

 **Now: I know Harry doesn't have any living relatives except the Dursleys (that we know of, at least not any close relatives) but I thought this: William is Charlus Potter and Dorea Black's son's son. He and his parents - and grandparents if they still was alive - was killed in the war, which resulted in Harry as the last Potter until he got his own children.**

 **And Anne Theresa was just some names I came up with that I thought fitted together with Lily, since we've got no idea what her middle name/s are. Fleamont I obviously choose after James' father.**


End file.
